| ID | 184738 |
| Title Proper | Home, identity, and place in Syrian literature |
| Other Title Information | Maha Hassan’s Drums of Love and Ghassan Jubbaʿi’s Qahwat Al-General |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Natour, Manal al |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | This study explores the juncture of home, liminality and counternarrative in contemporary Syrian literature produced after the eruption of the revolution in 2011. As a case study, I examine how Maha Hassan’s Drums of Love and Ghassan Jubbaʿi’s Qahwat Al-General redefine the concept of home through heterotopic and utopic representations of the place. The study demonstrates that in both works a real sense of home proves unattainable. When the protagonists seek a place for themselves in a home that enjoys freedom and justice, the home denies them. Utilising Bakhtin’s notion of polyphony, I investigate how both works represent a multiplicity of oppressed voices in a ‘home’ that imprisons and estranges everyone. Both texts bear global messages, inviting their readers to examine the complexity of the status quo in Syria through subjecting all-encompassing representations of the revolution and resisting oppression to a process of contestation. Finally, I argue that the unattainable sense of home depicted in the novels marks such texts as a part of the enduring legacy of the Syrian revolution and its causes, and thereby they may foreground solidarity among Syrians who continue to suffer the loss of home. |
| `In' analytical Note | Contemporary Levant Vol. 7, No.1; Apr 2022: p.66-80 |
| Journal Source | Contemporary Levant Vol: 7 No 1 |
| Key Words | Home ; Syrian Civil War ; Heterotopia ; Syrian Literature ; Syrian Novel ; Syrian Urban Places ; Maha Hassan ; Ghassan al-Jubbaʿi |